Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-07-02

"Oh, John" said Bessie, beginning to cry, II
don't like your going at all among those wild
boers. You are an English officer, and If
they lind you out they will shoot you. You
don't know what brutes some of them are
when they think it safe to be so. Oh, John,
John, I amt bear your going"
"Cheer up, my dear" said John, "and for
Heavens sake stop crying, for I can't bear it.
l must 60. Your uncle would never forgive
me If didn't, and, what is more, I should
never forgive myself. There is nobody else
to 60, and we a leave jess to be shut up
there in Pretoria-for months perhaps. As
for the risk, Of course there is q bit of risk,
but must take it. I am not afraid of risks
at least l used not to be, but you nave made
q bit OF a coward of me, Bessie dear. There,
give me a kiss, old girl, and come and help
me to pack my things. Please God I shall
get back all right, and jess with me, in a
week from now"
Wherein Bessie, being q sensible and emil
nently practical young woman, dried her
tears, and with a cheerful face, albeit her
heart was heavy enough, set to work with a
VIII to make every preparation she could
think OF. The few clothes John was going to
take with him were packed in a Gladstone
bag, and the box that wa arranged under.
AAS~sA VIC A4OSaOo 666J LII vuO cape cart
was filled with the timed provisions that are
% much used in South Africa, and all the
Other little arrangements, small in themselves,
but of such infinite Importance to the trav-
eler ina wild country, were duly attended to
by her careful hands. Then came a hurried
meal and before it was swallowed the cart was
at the door, with Jantje hanging as usual on
to the heads of the two front horses, and the
stalwart Zulu, or rather Swat boy, Mouti,
whose sole luggage appeared to consist of q
bundle of assegais and sticks wrapped up in q
grass mat, and who, hot as it was, was en-
veloped in q vast military great coat, loung-
ing placidly alongside.
Good by, John, dear john" said Bessie,
kissing him again IL again, and striving to
keep lack the tears that, do what she could,
would gather in her blue eyes. "Good by,
my love"
"God bless you, dearest" he said, simply,
kissing her in answer; good by, Mr.. Croft,
l hope to sec you again in a week." and he
was i'll the cart and had gathered up the long
and intricate looking reins. Jantje let 20
the horses heads and gave q whoop. Mouti,
giving up star gazing, suddenly became an
animated being and scrambled into the cart
with surprising alacrity; the horses sprang
a uo1Iu 6allOp dlAu WeTc SOOu Q1V-
den from Bessie's dim sight in cloud of dust.
Poor Bessie! 1t was a hard trial; and now
that John had gon and her tears could not
distress him, she went into her room and
gave way to them freely enough.
John reached Luck's, an establishment ON
the Pretoria road that happily combined the
characteristics of an inn, a shop and a farm
house, such as are to be met with in sparsely
populated countries. 1t was not an inn and
not a farm house, strictly speaking, nor was
it altogether a shop, though there was a
"store" attached. II tho traveller were anx-
ious to obtain accommodation for man and
beast at a place of this stamp he had to pro-
coed warily, so to speak, lest he should 10 re-
quested to move on. He must advance, hat
in hand, n ask to be taken in as q favor. as
many a high handed traveller, accustomed to
the ~obsequious attentions of mine host"
has learned to his cost. There is no
such dreadful autocrat as your half and half
inn keeper in South Africa, and then he is so
completely master of the situation. If you
don't like it, go and be id to YOU" is his
simple answer to the remonstrances Of the
Infatuated voyager. And then you must
either knock under and look as though you
liked it, or trek on into the "unhostelled"
wilderness. On this occasion, however. John
Jared well enough. To begin with he knew
the owners Of this place, who were very civil
people if approached in a humble spirit, and,
furthermore. he found everybody in such a
state of unpleasurable excitement that they
were only too glad to get another Englishman
to talk the matters over with. Not that
their information amounted to much, how
ever. There was a rumor of tho Bronker's
Spruit disaster and other rumors of the in
vestment Of Pretoria, and of the advance of
largo bodies Of Beers to take possession o f.the
pass over the Drakensburg, known as Laing's
Mex, but there was no definite intelligence.
"You won't get into Pretoria" said ono
melancholy man. $50 it's no use trying. The
Beers will just catch you and kill you, and
there will be an end of it. You bad better
leave the girl to look after herself and 90
back to Mooifontein."
But this was not Johns view of the matter.
swell" he said, "at any rate, I'll have a try"
Indeed, he had a sort of bulldog sentiment
about him that led him to believe that, if he
made up his mind to do q thing, he would do
it somehow, unless he should be physically in
capacitated by circumstances beyond his own
control. It is wonderful how far a mood Of
this sort will take q man. Indeed, it is the
widespread possession Of this sentiment that
~10 4AthNS Ah6&0Ao "Aog oAo Z, W" ~ . w
ginning to die down. and he legislated out of
our national character, and the results are
already commencing to appear in the incip-
lent decay Of our power. We cannot gov
ern Ireland. It is beyond US; let Ireland
have home rulel We cannot cope with our
imperial responsibilities; let thefl be cast off
and so On. The Englishmen of fifty years ago
did not talk like this. Well, every nation be-
comes emasculated sooner or later, that seems
to be the universal fate; and it appears that
1t is our lot to be emasculated, not by the
want of law, but by q plethora of it. This
country was made, not by governments, but
mostly in despite Of them by the Independent
efforts of u series Of individuals. The ten
dency nowadays is to merge tho individual in
the government, and to limit and even
forcibly destroy personal enterprise and re-
sponsibility. Everything is to be legislated
for OF legislated against. The system is only
in its bud as yet. When it blooms the EN-
pire will lose touch Of its individual atoms and
become q vast, soulless machine, which will
first get out Of order, then break down, and,
last of all, break up. We owe more to sturdy,
determined, u~nconvincible Englishmen like
John Mel than we realize, or, perhaps, should
be willing to acknowledge in these enlight-
ened days.
CHAPTER XIV.
A ROUGH JOURNEY.
The four grays were fresh horses, in good
condition and with a light load behind them,
SO, Notwithstanding the bad condition of the
tracks which they call roads in South Africa,
John made good progress.
By II o'clock that day he had reached
StaudertOu. q little town mon the Vaa1 not
far from which he was destined, had he but